Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB Review

Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB Introduction:

Solid state drives and video cards are two of the biggest experience drivers when it comes to replacing hardware in an existing system. While flash based media has traditionally been high in price for the amount of capacity you purchase, the cost per gigabyte has steadily been dropping. Now we're reaching the point that a lower cost 480GB drive will set you back a shade under two Benjamins ($200 US) in many cases. Installing an SSD gives the user faster access to data, lower power consumption, much improved boot times, and just an overall feel that the system is faster.

That being said today I have the latest HyperX drive from Kingston, the HyperX Savage 240GB capacity drive. Kingston offers the HyperX Savage drives in capacities ranging from 120GB to 960GB to hit most of the price points for the end user. You can pick up the drive separately or you can pick up the upgrade kit that adds a few more dollars to the point of purchase, but you get pretty much everything you will need to install the drive along with a few nice to have add ons. Kingston's HyperX Savage drives are equipped with the latest Phison S10 8-channel NAND controller to manage the MLC flash media in the drive. Basic specifications include sequential performance of 560MB/s read and 530MB/s write, Random 4K read/write performance of up to 93,000, and up to 89,000 IOPS, putting it right in line with some of the faster drives on the market. By using the Phison controller Kingston brings a modestly priced drive to the market for the masses. I'm curious to see how the HyperX Savage compares to the last Phison-based drive I tested. Let's take a look and see how it compares.

Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB Closer Look:

The packaging for the HyperX Savage upgrade kit is well put together, with a heavyweight card stock box to hold the drive and accessory bundle. Visually it looks great and stands out from the crowd. On the front panel there is a picture of the drive, the HyperX logo, basic read/write specs, and that you have free tech support along with a three-year warranty. The back side list the benefits of moving to a flash-based drive in multiple languages and shows the contents of the included upgrade kit. Opening the box we get a view of the drive in a soft foam enclosure with the contents of the upgrade kit in the lower level.

Kingston offers the Savage drive as either a bare drive or as an upgrade kit for laptops or desktops. Kingston sent me the upgrade kit, so let's dig into what it includes. Part number SHSS3B7A/240G includes the HyperX Savage drive, a 2.5" USB 3.0 enclosure, 3.5" bracket and mounting screws, SATA data cable, hard drive cloning software – download coupon, multi-bit screwdriver that works with other 1/8" hex bits, and a 7mm–9.5mm adapter. All pretty useful parts when upgrading from a mechanical drive. By far one of the most useful parts of the bundle is the USB 3.0 enclosure. It allows you to hook up and easily transfer the data during the drive cloning process, as well as using it as a portable storage drive.

Finally we get to the drive. Visually it is bright and would look great in a modded chassis using a red and black theme. The back side of the drive has a label with the model number, HyperX logo, and capacity of the drive (240GB). A small tamper proof warranty sticker covers one of the case screws and easily demonstrates an attempt to remove or penetrate the sticker, voiding the warranty. For mounting options you have the standard for the 2.5 inch form factor side and bottom attachment points. At only 7mm thick, the HyperX Savage will fit into the thinner confines of the latest portables. If you need to get up to 9.5mm thick you can use the supplied adapter in the upgrade kit to fill up that space. Connectivity is standard for the form factor with SATA power and data connections. Kingston uses an aluminum case to both decrease weight and improve cooling of the components on the PCB. Kingston's HyperX Savage is a SATA 6Gb/s device that is backwards compatible for use with SATA 3Gb/s systems. The HyperX Savage is based around a Phison PS3110-S10 8-channel controller that manages the Toshiba A19 64Gbit MLC NAND along with a 256MB Nanya 1600MHz CL 11 DDR3 DRAM cache on-board the PCB.

Equipped with Phison's PS3110 SATA to NAND 8-channel controller, we get a feature set that includes SmartECC™, SmartFlush™, GuaranteedFlush™, built-in static and dynamic wear-leveling, power saving implemented and End-to-End Data Path Protection, support for MLC/TLC large block NAND, and more. Kingston has put together a drive that should hit all the right marks when it comes to performance. Let's see if it actually can accomplish that goal.